Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Alpha's Going Going Gone

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the going-gently-into-that-dark-night dept.

WildCode writes "Get your Alphas now cause HP is releasing the last of the Alphas (the final one expected to be released in 2004), and there will be no more." I was already under the mistaken impression that Alpha was dead, so this story is rather bittersweet for me. Still, as far as architectures go, Alpha will probably be among my favorites. It was once vastly ahead of its time, if not severely cost-prohibitive.

2 of 303 comments (clear)

  1. When Alpha died by evilviper · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I was already under the mistaken impression that Alpha was dead

    No, it wasn't a mistaken impression at all... Alpha died about 1997, when Compaq bought DEC, and squandered the assets of a great company. Sure, they were still turning out machines, but the Alpha was as good as dead from that point on. I figured maybe HP would know what Compaq didn't, and resurect the Alpha, but they are beholden to Intel, so that didn't happen.

    Believe it or not, even though it's been dead for the past 6 years, it could still be resurected...

    For one, Intel has bought the rights the the Alpha, so they could use some of the same ideas in their Itanium and Pentium chips. The miserable failure of the Itanium is quite encouraging, because that could mean the only way they can get a leg-up on AMD64, would be to start making Alphas... It's wishful thinking on my part, but Intel would have much to gain.

    Long-live the Alpha.
    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  2. Re:It is a real shame... by joto · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This is one amazing chip and it was at one time lightyears ahead of anything Intel put out. I honestly believe that HP is making a mistake here by ditching this chip. Sure R&D costs of chip design and production are enormous but HP is hitching their wagon to the Itanic?

    The Alpha was formerly Compaq and even before that a Digital invention. HP has their PA-RISC architecture, of which Itanium was planned from the start to replace (one of the design requirements for Itanium was that a software translator for binary PA-RISC code was made possible).

    Furthermore, as far as I know, the Alpha is still produced by Intel, not by HP/Compaq/Digital, as Compaq sold their alpha plants, personell and all associated IP to Intel (and thus avoided a lawsuit, as well as ensuring the Alphas future for a few years). There were also plans for a Itanium version of Tru64 (formerly Digital Unix), but I am unsure as to whether it was ever commercialized.

    All in all. It seems like a pretty sound business decision to me. This is what "they" have planned all along, for many years, whether "they" are Digital, Compaq, HP, or Intel.